In The Shadows: New Beginnings
by denise1
Summary: Will and Abby start their new life. This story will follow the canon relationships of the show.


In the Shadows:

New Beginnings

By

Denise

"So Magnus built all of this?" Abby asked, staring around the verdant cavern.

"With the help of some Hollow Earth technology and some Praxian survivors, yeah," Will confirmed. Even though this was his second visit he still couldn't quite wrap his head around all that Magnus had done, the sheer magnitude of the accomplishment was almost unbelievable.

"I can't believe that there's not a sign of this on the surface."

"The rural location does help," Magnus said, joining them. "Will, Abby, welcome," she greeted as she walked towards them.

"This is amazing, Doctor Magnus," Abby said, turning a circle as she spoke.

"Thank you," Magnus replied. "I may have started it but many helped to bring it to fruition." She gestured towards the buildings. "I can show you to your quarters."

The three of them walked towards the gleaming white buildings. "We did leave a few things hidden at the trail head," Will said. He held up his pack. "Couldn't quite get it all in here."

"I'll have Henry get a couple of people to retrieve it," Helen said.

"Thanks."

"It's not Will's fault," Abby said. "I tried to pack light but…forever is a little intimidating."

"I think we both contributed," Will said, glancing at Magnus.

"We have made a few return trips to Praxis to retrieve possessions and building material," Magnus said. "And," her face colored a bit. "It took a couple of trips for me too."

They reached the end of the path and stopped. Magnus motioned towards one of the buildings. "I secured both of you apartments. I thought you'd be more comfortable here than in the part of the city where I have my quarters."

"Umm, about that…" Magnus turned to face Abby. She shrugged and raised her left hand. "We only need one."

A small diamond ring sparkled in the light and Abby grinned happily. "Congratulations," Magnus said.

"It made a great cover story," Will said. He wrapped his arm around Abby's shoulder. "We are going to tragically vanish on our honeymoon."

"It was really quite a story," Abby said. "That's why it took us an extra couple of weeks and—"

Magnus held up her hand. "I'd love to hear all about it. Maybe this evening you and Abby can join me for dinner? We can catch up and I can brief you on your duties here."

"Dinner sounds great," Will said.

"Good, let's get you two settled then."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Will had it all planned out," Abby said. "It was really quite amazing."

"Will? Planned?" Kate asked, a smile keeping her tone from being insulting.

"Yeah, I have a hard time remembering when his plans worked out," Henry teased.

Will laughed, picking up his wine glass and took a sip. "My plans worked out…just not always the way I intended."

"Kate has told me about many of your escapades. I still find many quite extraordinary," Garis said.

"When humans and abnormals live side by side, even with many abnormals hiding their true selves, it often creates quite extraordinary circumstances," Helen said.

She, Will, Abby, Henry, Erika, Garis and Kate all sat around a large table taking up most of Magnus' living room. The seven of them were just finishing their meal, lingering over dessert and coffee…tea in Magnus' case.

"The need to be a secret and separate from the humans is why I grew up where I grew up," Erika said. She looked down and laid her hand on the small bump of her belly. "And why my…our, child will grow up differently." She smiled at Henry who laid a hand on her shoulder.

"While we are on the subject of life changing events," Kate said. "You have to tell us about the wedding."

Will shrugged. "It wasn't exactly a wedding."

"We went to city hall," Abby said, shrugging regretfully. "Didn't have a lot of time for anything else."

"We knew that even after we quit our jobs, SCIU probably wouldn't stop following us so we needed a good reason to go away," Will said.

"And what better reason than a honeymoon," Kate said.

"Exactly," Abby confirmed. "We sold some of our furniture, put the rest in storage."

"We sold our cars and used the proceeds to buy a boat."

"A boat?" Magnus asked.

"You would have thought I would have learned after that whole submarine thing and crashing in the oil platform but," he sighed. "We thought about just going on a long trip over seas—"

"Passports." Henry interrupted Will.

Will nodded. "We 'd have left a paper trail no matter where we went. We couldn't even have taken a cross country drive without dealing with credit cards and traffic cameras and toll booths, so we bought the boat."

"It was really romantic," Abby said. "We invited a few friends, left at sunset. Will told everyone we were going to sail to Hawaii."

"What people didn't realize was once the sun set we paused a bit and…died."

"I have say, you look quite remarkable for corpses," Erika said.

"Thanks." Abby grinned.

"We had an inflatable," Will explained. "We put it out, with a few supplies, set the auto pilot—"

"Left behind something for people to speculate about." Abby held up her arm, displaying a bandage.

Will held his up, revealing a matching bandage. "Little blood, few things tossed around," he shrugged. "We hopefully made it look like we fell overboard and the auto-pilot left us behind."

"That is very Open Water, " Henry said.

"After that we made it to shore, abandoned the boat, put on some disguises and made our way here."

"That was quite the elaborate scheme you devised," Magnus said.

"They may find the boat in a few days or few months or, if we're really lucky, it'll sink. All we can hope is that the trail will be nice and cold if SCIU ever picks it up."

"I'm sure it will be fine," Magnus said. "We can all appreciate the steps you took to safeguard this place." She took a sip of her tea and set the cup down. "I think this would be a perfect time to discuss your role here."

"Role?"

"She means job," Kate said.

Will glanced around the table. "I thought that it was the same as before?"

Magnus nodded. "It is very much the same. Although, since our contact with the surface is limited –"

"And he's dead," Henry interrupted.

"And the fact that a corpse should not be seen," she continued, "your role in abnormal retrievals will be limited, for the time being at least."

"That makes sense," Will agreed.

"Doctor Magnus said that you're a skilled psychologist," Erika said. "There are many people here that could have use of your services."

Will gestured with his hands and leaned back a bit in his seat. "I'd be glad to help. Do I have an office?"

Magnus chuckled. "You have an office. Now, as to Abby."

"Me?"

"We have a burgeoning and very diverse population here," Magnus continued. "As everyone here can attest to, there have been altercations."

"Altercation is an understatement for what that Tralaxian Moor Boar did last week—"

Magnus cleared her throat at Erika kicked Henry under the table. "We need a cop," Kate interjected, her customary bluntness getting directly to the issue at hand.

Abby stared for a second. "Oh, well, I mean, the FBI isn't exactly the police but…"

"I think your time with the AIU proved that you have skill in dealing with abnormals," Magnus said.

"You wish to name a surface dweller as the law keeper?" Garis asked. He looked around the table. "That is not a decision that will be easily accepted by most here."

"He's got a point," Henry said. "There's a lot of mistrust out there." Henry looked around the table, then turned to Abby. "Don't get me wrong, people are glad to be safe and away from SCIU but..."

"There are days when we wonder if we have too many people thrown together too quickly," Magnus finished. "Initially, people had the shared enemy of SCIU to rally around. But now that fear is fading, old grudges and issues are creeping to the surface. I'm afraid it was a side effect that I did not anticipate."

There was an awkward moment as the people around the table looked at each other, as if they weren't quite sure how to respond.

"What about a joint task force?" Abby blurted out.

"Task force? I am not familiar with this term," Garis said.

"Several officers all working towards the same goal," Magnus explained.

"When I was at the FBI, when we had a case with tricky jurisdiction-"

"Or when you needed someone else's resources," Will interjected.

"Or that, we'd set up a joint task force. What if, instead of one law keeper there are three. Me, someone from Praxis and an abnormal from the surface. It'd be a team."

"That is a very intriguing idea," Magnus said.

"Perhaps if the other two were elected by their people," Erika suggested. "Like the House of Commons...just without all the chaos and yelling."

"I believe my people would find that acceptable," Garis said.

"The surface abnormals would like it too," Kate said. "A lot of them have been pretty powerless for quite a while."

"It'd also shut down some of the rumors," Henry said.

"Rumors?" Will asked.

"There's a lot of tension between the surface abnormals and the Praxians. Each side is convinced that the other side is going to take them over."

"There is a lot of paranoia," Erika confirmed.

"A joint group of law enforcement may help in defusing the tension," Magnus said.

"I shall put the idea forth to my people," Garis said.

"Henry, you and Erika do the same," Magnus instructed. "Tell them we would like to have nominations for candidates within the week and elections will be held shortly thereafter."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Abby stepped onto the balcony and leaned against the railing, sighing as she took in her new surroundings.

The waterfall roared over its cliff, the small cloud of mist filling the air with a refreshing humidity. The main dome up high was dimmer now, simulating the moon. If she didn't know any better, she wouldn't know that she was deep underground. It truly was an amazing place. It was thrilling. It was exciting. It was terrifying. And now it was home.

"Helluva view isn't it?" Will asked, joining her.

"I gotta admit, it's not what I imagined living underground." He was standing beside her and she moved, sliding between him and the railing, letting his arms wrap around her as she leaned against his bare chest.

"I aah, I saw some pretty amazing things with Magnus. This does top them all." He tightened his arms, laying his chin on her shoulders. "Regrets?"

"Little late, isn't it?"

"We don't have to stay here. I'm sure Magnus has connections. We can get some new ID and use the Praxian network to surface on another continent," he suggested.

She shook her head. "I don't want to spend my whole life running."

He nuzzled her neck. "That was a great idea you came up with."

"The taskforce? I was kind of afraid she'd make me a traffic cop or something."

Will shook his head. "That out of the box thinking, I think that's what we'll need here. No one's ever done this before, brought together such different groups and expected them to live together." He hugged her a bit tighter. " You might have your hands full with whomever gets elected."

She shrugged. "I dealt with Gavin."

Will chuckled. "True. And if you could handle him..."

Abby turned in his arms, wrapping her own around his waist. "Do you regret getting married?" she asked abruptly.

"What?"

"Do you-"

"No." Will interrupted. "No. I was the one that proposed for Pete's sake." He kissed her as he pulled her closer. She pushed aside her insecurities and surrendered to the kiss, opening her mouth to him. Finally they broke and they stood there for a second, breathing hard as they stared at each other. "You know, Mrs. Zimmerman, I think we better take this inside."

"You do?"

"Oh yeah, I do." He raised his hand and she gasped when his fingers caressed her breast through her shirt. She grinned and pulled out of his arms, running through the open door. She peeled her shirt off and enjoyed the look on his face as she stood there. Crooking her finger she beckoned him, throwing the shirt as she backed towards their bedroom. Will joined her an the rest of the world ceased to exist as they lost themselves in each other.

~fin~


End file.
